


loose lips sink ships (not this time)

by nymeriahale



Category: Rugby RPF, Rugby Union RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 05:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20791226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nymeriahale/pseuds/nymeriahale
Summary: “Eddie, just checking - how is Owen Farrell after that hit, and are there any other injury concerns from the match?”“I think they’re about to barbecue part of his nose,” Eddie says offhandedly. “Think someone’s found it on the field. But no, look. He’s missing part of his nose, which is unfortunate, but he’s pretty happily settled in his relationship so it shouldn’t affect his life too much - he’ll be okay.”There’s a rustling among the press corps at Eddie’s words, and George closes his eyes briefly. They hadn’t known. Despite all the media's best efforts at getting Owen to talk about it, despite all the loose lips in England camp, the fact that Owen had a boyfriend had somehow never come out - until now.





	loose lips sink ships (not this time)

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick little something based off [the real life post-USA press conference](https://youtu.be/TdTvc0xHBqg?t=133).
> 
> This is a work of fiction and as such nothing to is be considered implied or insinuated about real life rugby players.
> 
> Title from I Know Places by Taylor Swift.

“Eddie, just checking - how is Owen Farrell after that hit, and are there any other injury concerns from the match?”

The question comes from an English journalist - they all seem to be English, honestly - who’s frowning in concern. George has found it hard to hear the questions with the constant chatter from his earpiece, but on hearing Owen’s name he looks up and manages to catch this one.

“I think they’re about to barbecue part of his nose,” Eddie says offhandedly. “Think someone’s found it on the field.” 

George suppresses a smile at the reference to Ben’s quick joke in the locker room, the slightly uncomfortable smiles some of the journalists are wearing in face of the unfamiliar humour.

“But no, look,” Eddie sobers. “He’s missing part of his nose, which is unfortunate, but he’s pretty happily settled in his relationship so it shouldn’t affect his life too much - he’ll be okay.”

There’s a rustling among the press corps at Eddie’s words, and George closes his eyes briefly. They hadn’t known. Owen had come out, yes, what feels like a lifetime ago now. But the media hadn’t known he had a boyfriend. Despite all their best efforts at getting him to talk about it, despite all the loose lips in England camp, it had somehow never come out - until now. George opens his eyes, finds Eddie’s head halfway turned towards him, an apologetic slant to his mouth. George leans forwards into Eddie’s line of vision, masking the movement with a reach for his water bottle, and laughs gently. It’s all the acceptance he can give without drawing attention to himself - he’d rather give no reaction at all, but if Eddie looks around further that’ll do the job just as well. His movement does seem to have drawn eyes, as the next question comes his way. No one seems to notice that Eddie had only answered half the previous question, too busy considering the new information he had given.

“George, you played a great game out there today -”

George lets himself smile in thanks.

“- what do you think the main things to be taken away from this match?”

“Well, we’ll see how much of an impact Owen losing part of his nose does have on his life,” George jokes, mostly for Eddie’s benefit.

Eddie barks out a laugh - George wonders how much of that release is relief. They’re protective of their relationship, Eddie knows that - but what’s done is done.

“You don’t think he’s as safe as Eddie does, then?” the journalist follows up..

George waves a hand in a ‘so-so’ motion. “Well…,” he pulls a considering face. “It was a pretty big chunk, I guess we’ll see.”

“His boyfriend’s a handsome lad, we’ll have to see if Owen still matches him,” Eddie puts in, presumably trying to gain George’s favour, while he waits out the laughter of the press corp.

George shoots a sideways glance Eddie’s way, and he sits back obligingly. No need to push it.

“Yeah, there’s always plenty of learnings from every match, even one where we play so well as this,” George answers seriously. “The lads in the set piece, they’ve shown just how strong that is, as always. But we had a few handling errors again, that’s something we can work on, continuing to get to grips with the ball in these conditions, how to play to minimise those.”

The press conference continues as normal after that, and George lets himself relax - a little too far, when a question comes for him in Japanese and he realises his earpiece has stopped functioning properly. Luckily Eddie can rescue him, but when George leaves the room that’s the main embarrassment on his mind.

“I’m going to need to apologise to Owen,” Eddie says loudly to Steve, as they head back down the corridors to the changing rooms.

And George remembers.

George pulls a face when Steve throws a bewildered look his way - Steve doesn’t know, doesn’t understand why it would be a big deal. “It’s done now,” George shrugs in response.

“If anything Fordy’ll be more in trouble, I’d think,” Steve jokes.

George laughs along, lets Eddie do the same.

Owen is waiting for them at the door of the changing room - he’d heard, seen on the screens around the room. “What’s all this about me losing half my nose?” he demands, joking - the same method of showing acceptance that George had used. “You make it sound like I’m hideous now!”

“Well,” George feigns consideration, again. 

“Oi, don’t you start,” Owen pulls George in with a rough arm around his neck, ruffles his hair. “If I start getting questions about the stability of my relationship I’m blaming you.”

That, of course, gets the surrounding members of the squad - largely lads that do know, Elliot and Jamie, Ben and Jonny - weighing in, making a ruckus. George goes with it easily when Owen pulls him in again.

“Sorry,” Owen mutters under the loud cover, as they pretend to tussle. “You did well.”

“It’s fine,” George manages, before throwing Owen off entirely. “Your nose, though,” he criticises loudly, squinting at the plaster Owen’s had slapped on.

“What, you really think I’m in trouble?” Owen teases, stepping back and putting a hand on his hip to make his bicep bulge.

George wrinkles his nose, pretends to assess Owen’s body judgmentally. You’d think after all these years George would have developed some immunity to the sight of his boyfriend shirtless, but sometimes it hits him just as hard as ever, how gorgeous Owen is, how lucky George is. This is one of those times.

“No,” George allows, after a long look. “No, I imagine you’ll be okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! As always I would love to hear from you in comments, or you can find me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/nymeriahale) or [tumblr](http://fordfarrell.tumblr.com). I hope you're all enjoying the World Cup so far!


End file.
